Then & Now #34: The old Houston Press building

When this photo of the Houston Press building was taken in October 1961, the No. 3 newspaper in Houston had been here at the corner of Rusk and Chartres since 1927.

October 1961 also happened to be around the time of the newspaper’s 50th anniversary. In a special section put out that year, the paper said the building was one of the most modern newspaper plants in the South (seems like every newspaper says that when opening a new building). It’s said that owner Scripps-Howard invested $500,000 in the property at the time.

Before its move into the Spanish-style structure, the paper had been located at Capitol and Bagby since 1913. Over the years, the paper expanded at that site. I’ve never seen a photograph of the building, but it’s said the red bricks that made up the building were salvaged from Central High School, which had burned in 1919.

Finally, the Houston Press had its beginnings in a rented ex-garage at 709 Louisiana, about where the Pennzoil Building is today.

As for the Rusk and Chartres site you see pictured here, the lot had been cleared by the late 1980s, years after the paper closed in 1964.

Houston Press building at 2000 block of Rusk. October 1961. (Chronicle photo)